London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Bulldozers moved in today at an adventure playground occupied by protesters.

Workmen took chainsaws to the slide and diggers broke up climbing frames at Battersea Park playground to end the three-week occuption.

The site was closed by Wandsworth council last October despite local opposition after it axed its last four members of staff.

The council now plans to install £200,000 worth of new play equipment which will not require staff supervision. The playground had been taken over by Occupy London demonstrators, who had entered the site and slept in tents and makeshift camps in protest at the plan.

Wandsworth council released photographs which they said showed vandalism, including spray-painting, to one of the buildings on the site.

The council claims the protesters left the park in a “squalid and disgusting mess” and estimates the total bill, including policing, legal costs and clean-up, to be in excess of £30,000.

The protesters say much of the damage was caused when they were evicted by bailiffs.

Today, a man and a woman who were the last remaining on site, finally moved out.

Jonny Renlap, 25, said: “They are knocking it down as we speak, I can hear chainsaws and drills and diggers – it’s depressing. I think we’re going to bow out gracefully.”

Local mother-of-three Elizabeth Oddono, 41, said: “The council can spin it however they like, but they are the ones who have failed to have conversations with the community.

“These protesters are representing my children who are not in a position to camp out in the middle of winter.”

A council spokesman added: “Now we’ve got rid of the squatters we can get on with the work on the playground we’ve wanted to do all along.”